JP4236136B2 - Post-processing device for image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a post-processing apparatus for an image forming apparatus that is used adjacent to an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine or a printer. More specifically, the present invention relates to a post-processing apparatus that stacks sheets discharged from an image forming apparatus, binds the intermediate position of the stacked sheet bundle, and folds and binds at the intermediate position.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Conventionally, in a post-processing apparatus of this type of image forming apparatus , for example, copied sheets discharged from a copying machine are put on a staple tray, stacked once, and an intermediate position of the stacked sheet bundle is bound. There is a booklet that is folded at an intermediate position and discharged onto a paper discharge tray as a booklet as shown in FIG.
[0003]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, in such a post-processing device of the conventional image forming apparatus, when the saddle-stitched sheet bundle is folded, the opening side opposite to the binding side protrudes in a mountain shape and becomes uneven. As shown in FIG. 4A, in the case of a sheet bundle having a relatively small number of sheets, the uneven portion m is not so noticeable, but as shown in FIG. 4B, the sheet having a relatively large number of sheets. In the case of a bundle, there is a problem that the uneven portion n is conspicuous and the booklet does not look good.
[0004]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
Accordingly, in the invention described in claim 1, for example, as in the embodiment described with reference to the following drawings, sheets discharged from the image forming apparatus are stacked, and an intermediate position of the stacked sheet bundle P is bound, in the post-processing apparatus of an image forming apparatus for bookbinding folded at its intermediate position, Rutotomoni comprises a cutting means for aligning cut edges of the side opening of the sheet bundle P with folded binding, the passage of the sheet bundle folded Cutting that provides a sensor to detect, and when the sensor detects passage of the sheet bundle, conveys the sheet bundle by a certain distance according to the number of sheets, and cuts the edges of the sheet bundle by the cutting means. The position can be adjusted according to the number of sheets of the sheet bundle.
[0005]
When the sheets are discharged from the image forming apparatus, the sheets are stacked, the intermediate position of the stacked sheet bundle P is bound, folded at the intermediate position, and the opening end of the folded sheet bundle P is opened. The cutting position at which the edges are trimmed is adjusted according to the number of sheets in the sheet bundle, and the adjusted edge is trimmed by the cutting means 50.
[0006]
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the post-processing apparatus of the image forming apparatus according to the first aspect, the sheet bundle P in which the number of sheets is equal to or greater than a certain number, as in the embodiment described with reference to the following drawings, for example. The cutting means 50 is operated only at the time.
[0008]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a post-processing apparatus according to the present invention.
[0009]
This post-processing apparatus is provided adjacent to the side of, for example, a digital copying machine (not shown) (“image forming apparatus” in the present invention). Reference numeral 10 in the drawing denotes an exterior case of the post-processing apparatus.
[0010]
The outer case 10 has a vertically long box shape, and is provided with a paper feeding port 11 that coincides with the paper ejection port of the copying machine on the upper side of the right side in the figure, while an upper paper ejection port 12 is provided on the upper side of the left side in the figure. The lower paper discharge port 13 is provided on the lower side. Then, the upper paper discharge tray 15 is attached to the lower side of the upper paper discharge port 12, the lower paper discharge tray 16 is attached to the lower side of the lower paper discharge port 13, and casters 14 are attached to the bottom four corners so as to be movable.
[0011]
The illustrated post-processing apparatus includes opposing side plates (not shown) on the front side and the rear side in the exterior case 10 in the figure, and supports most of the components described below between the two side plates. Thus, a first transport path A for transporting the copied paper to the upper paper discharge tray 15 is provided between the paper feed port 11 and the upper paper discharge port 12.
[0012]
In the first transport path A, a pair of paper feed rollers 17 is provided at the position of the paper feed port 11, a pair of paper discharge rollers 18 are provided at the position of the upper paper discharge port 12, and two pairs of transport rollers 19. 20 is provided. Further, on the upstream side of the transport roller 19, a punch hole punching unit 21 for punching a copied sheet is provided, and on the downstream side of the transport roller 19, a switching claw 22 for switching the transport path is provided rotatably.
[0013]
The paper discharge roller 18 described above supports the upper driven roller attached to the tip of the support arm 23. The support arm 23 is supported by the opposing side plate so as to be rotatable about a support shaft 23a at the base end thereof. Then, the driven roller is rotated by an arm drive motor (not shown) so that the driven roller can be brought into contact with and separated from the drive roller.
[0014]
Further, in the outer case 10, a second transport path B is provided in a downward direction by branching at the position of the switching claw 22 of the first transport path A. The second conveyance path B is a conveyance path for conveying the copied paper to the staple tray 25, and a pair of conveyance rollers 26 to 28 are provided in the middle.
[0015]
The staple tray 25 has a square plate shape and is not shown in the figure. However, a long belt opening is provided in the center of the staple tray 25 in the sheet bundle conveying direction indicated by an arrow a in the center, and a pair of staple openings is provided on both the left and right sides of the belt opening. Is provided. Further, a center folding guide hole 25b that is long in the width direction perpendicular to the sheet bundle conveying direction a is provided in the upper end portion 25a. Then, the upper end 25a side is inclined to the left and the lower end 25c side is slightly inclined to the right.
[0016]
In the staple tray 25, saddle-stitched staples 30 for binding the center of the sheet bundle are attached to the two staple opening positions, respectively, and one-sided staples 31 for binding one side of the sheet bundle are attached to the lower end portion 25c. Installed.
[0017]
Further, on the right surface of the staple tray 25 in the drawing, a pair of jogger fences (not shown) for aligning both sides of the paper are provided so as to be movable in the direction perpendicular to the paper bundle conveying direction a. Further, a paper receiver 32 bent in an L shape is attached to the lower side of the jogger fence.
[0018]
In the illustrated post-processing apparatus, a taki roller 34 is provided on the front side of the staple tray 25 so as to be swingable about the support shaft 33. Tatakikoro 34 formed by winding a sponge axis is reciprocally rotated to convey the driving of a driving motor (not shown) to the support shaft 33.
[0019]
On the other hand, on the back side of the staple tray 25, a conveying belt 35 is disposed so as to partially face the belt opening. The conveyor belt 35 is an endless belt, and has one protruding piece 40 standing on the surface by screwing or the like. Then, it is passed between the drive roller 36 and the driven rollers 37 and 38, and the drive of a drive motor (not shown) is transmitted to the drive roller 36 so that it can be rotated counterclockwise in the figure.
[0020]
Further, the illustrated post-processing apparatus includes a half-folding unit 45 surrounded by a chain line on the upper end portion 25a side of the staple tray 25 described above. The center folding unit 45 is a device that folds a bundle of sheets at an intermediate position, and includes a center folding guide plate 41 on the right side of the center folding guide hole 25b in the drawing and a pair of center folding rollers 42 on the left side.
[0021]
The middle fold guide plate 41 is long along the middle fold guide hole 25b, and the tip edge on the left side in the drawing is tapered, and the tip edge is disposed toward the nip portion between the middle fold rollers 42. It is driven by a motor for exclusive use of middle folding (not shown) so as to be freely reciprocated linearly.
[0022]
Further, the illustrated post-processing apparatus is provided with an upper discharge path C that conveys the sheet bundle P and discharges it to the upper discharge tray 15 between the upper end portion 25 a of the staple tray 25 and the discharge roller 18. On the other hand, a lower paper discharge path D for conveying the sheet bundle P and discharging it to the lower paper discharge tray 16 is provided between the center folding roller 42 and the lower paper discharge port 13.
[0023]
In the lower paper discharge path D, a pair of paper discharge rollers 46 are provided at the position of the lower paper discharge port 13, and a pair of transport rollers 47 are provided in the middle. A sensor 49 such as a photo sensor is provided between the transport roller 47 and the paper discharge roller 46 to detect the passage of the folded sheet bundle, and the cutter 49 is provided between the sensor 49 and the paper discharge roller 46. A cutting means 50 such as is provided.
[0024]
In the post-processing apparatus of the image forming apparatus described above, when the bookbinding process is not performed, the copied paper ejected from the digital copying machine is inserted from the paper feed port 11 and is conveyed by the transport rollers 19 and 20. The paper is transported through the transport path A, and is directly discharged from the upper paper discharge port 12 onto the upper paper discharge tray 15 by the paper discharge roller 18.
[0025]
In this case, when performing punch punching processing on the copied paper, punch punching processing is selected in advance by a predetermined selection key before the copy button is pressed. Then, when the copied paper passes through the first transport path A, the transport of the copied paper is temporarily stopped at the position of the punch hole punching unit 21, the punched hole is punched in the copied paper by the unit 21, and the first paper is left as it is. The paper is discharged onto the upper paper discharge tray 15 through the conveyance path A.
[0026]
On the other hand, when the bookbinding process is performed, the bookbinding process is selected in advance with a predetermined selection key, and further, for example, the saddle stitching for binding sheets at the center is selected in the bookbinding process.
[0027]
When the bookbinding processing mode is thus selected, the illustrated post-processing apparatus rotates the switching claw 22 to the position indicated by the chain line and switches the transport route to the second transport path B. Further, the conveyor belt 35 is rotated to position the protruding piece 40 at the home position indicated by the chain line in FIG. Further, the support arm 23 is rotated in the clockwise direction in the drawing around the support shaft 23a, and the upper driven roller is separated from the drive roller to open the space between the two.
[0028]
After the copy button is pressed and the copied paper is ejected from the digital copying machine, the paper sequentially enters the first transport path A through the paper feed port 11 and is halfway through the switching claw 22. To the second transport path B. Then, the paper is transported through the second transport path B by the transport rollers 26, 27, and 28 and discharged onto the staple tray 25. Then, the sheets are received by the sheet receiver 32 and sequentially stacked on the staple tray 25.
[0029]
At that time, each time the paper is discharged, the tapping roller 34 is rotated around the support shaft 33 to hit the paper one by one from the top. By hitting the paper in this manner and applying an impact, for example, if papers are attached, they are separated and the upper and lower edges are aligned.
[0030]
When a predetermined number of sheets are stacked in this way, the jogger fence is moved according to the sheet size to align the left and right side edges of the sheet bundle P.
[0031]
Thereafter, the conveying belt 35 is rotated, and the sheet bundle P is pushed up by the protruding piece 40. When the intermediate position of the sheet bundle P reaches the staple position indicated by reference numeral s in FIG. Stop temporarily. Then, the saddle stitching staple 30 is actuated and a binding needle is hit at the intermediate position of the sheet bundle P to be bound.
[0032]
Then, the conveyance belt 35 is rotated again, and the sheet bundle P is further pushed up by the protruding piece 40. When the intermediate position reaches the middle folding position t of the middle folding unit 45, the pushing up is stopped at the middle folding position t. .
[0033]
Then, the middle folding dedicated motor is driven to operate the middle folding guide plate 41, and the middle folding guide plate 41 is moved and pressed against the intermediate position of the sheet bundle P as shown in FIG. Further, the middle folding guide plate 41 is moved between the middle folding rollers 42 through the middle folding guide holes 25b to push in the sheet bundle P, and is folded in two between the middle folding rollers 42.
[0034]
Then, while folding in such a manner, the sheet bundle P is sent out to the lower paper discharge path D shown in FIG. 1 by the intermediate folding roller 42, and further conveyed to the cutting means 50 by the conveying roller 47.
[0035]
When the sensor 49 detects that the rear end in the transport direction of the sheet bundle P has passed before the cutting means 50, the sheet bundle P is transported by a certain distance based on that and the cutting position of the sheet bundle P (for example, the above-mentioned) When the cutting position k) indicated by the chain line in FIG. 4B reaches the blade position of the cutting means 50, the conveyance of the sheet bundle P is temporarily stopped.
[0036]
Then, the cutting means 50 is operated to cut the folded sheet bundle P along the cut position k, and the edges on the side where the sheet bundle P is opened are aligned.
[0037]
After the cutting, the sheet bundle P is conveyed again by the discharge roller 46 and discharged onto the lower discharge tray 16 as a booklet.
[0038]
By the way, in the illustrated post-processing apparatus, when the bookbinding process is performed, it is possible to perform one-side binding for binding the copied paper on one side.
[0039]
In that case, as in the case of the saddle stitching described above, the copied sheets are discharged onto the staple tray 25 one by one through the second conveyance path B and received by the sheet receiver 32. When a predetermined number of copied sheets are stacked with the top, bottom, left, and right aligned, the single-binding staple 31 is actuated and a binding needle is applied to one side of the sheet bundle to be bound.
[0040]
Then, the conveyor belt 35 is rotated to push the sheet bundle up to the upper paper discharge path C by the protruding piece 40, and is discharged onto the upper paper discharge tray 15 by the paper discharge roller 18 through the paper discharge path C.
[0041]
In the above-described post-processing apparatus, if the sheet bundle P is folded halfway by the folding unit 45 and then always cut by the cutting means 50, the blade part may be easily damaged and the life may be shortened.
[0042]
Therefore, in the present invention, for example, in the above-described post-processing apparatus, the operation of the cutting means 50 is controlled by a control unit (not shown), for example, and the cutting means 50 is operated only when the number of paper sheets P is a certain number or more. It can also be set as the structure to do.
[0043]
In that case, the control unit controls the cutting process by the cutting means 50 as shown in FIG.
[0044]
First, in step S1, it is determined whether or not the number of sheets of the sheet bundle P to be bound and folded is a certain number or more, for example, 5 or more. When the number of sheets is four or less, the cutting process is not performed, and the process proceeds to step S6 to perform the paper discharge process. That is, the folded sheet bundle P passes through the position of the cutting means 50 and is discharged onto the lower discharge tray 16.
[0045]
On the other hand, when the number of sheets is five or more, the process proceeds to step S2 where the sensor 49 detects whether or not the rear end of the folded sheet bundle P in the transport direction has passed. When the passage is detected, the sheet bundle P is conveyed by a certain distance based on the detection result. In step S3, when the cutting position k at the end of the sheet bundle P reaches the blade position of the cutting means 50, the conveyance of the sheet bundle P is temporarily stopped.
[0046]
Then, in the next step S4, a cutting process is performed. That is, the cutting unit 50 is operated to cut the bound and bundled sheet bundle P along the cutting position k, and align the edges on the opening side of the sheet bundle P.
[0047]
After cutting, the process proceeds to step S5, where the sheet bundle P is conveyed again by the discharge roller 46, and discharged from the lower discharge port 13 onto the lower discharge tray 16 in step S6.
[0048]
In the example described above, the reference number for determining whether or not to perform the cutting process is five, but it may be changed to an appropriate number according to the paper size, paper thickness, and the like.
[0049]
By the way, even when the number of sheets in the sheet bundle is five or more, for example, when the sheet bundle is folded, the size of the uneven portion generated on the opening side varies depending on the number of sheets.
[0050]
Therefore, in the present invention, for example, in the above-described post-processing apparatus, the cutting position k at which the edge of the sheet bundle P is trimmed by the cutting means 50 may be adjusted according to the number of sheets in the sheet bundle P.
[0051]
【The invention's effect】
Therefore, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the edge on the opening side of the sheet bundle is trimmed by the cutting means after binding and folding at the time of binding, so that the edge of the sheet bundle is not aligned. It is possible to prevent the occurrence of a portion and improve the appearance as a booklet.
[0052]
According to the second aspect of the invention, in addition, the cutting means is operated only when the number of sheets is equal to or more than a predetermined number of sheets, and the use frequency of the cutting means is reduced. Can be extended.
[0053]
According to the first aspect of the present invention, in addition, the cutting position at which the edge of the sheet bundle is trimmed by the cutting means can be adjusted according to the number of sheets in the sheet bundle. Uneven portions generated according to the thickness of the bundle can be reliably eliminated, and the appearance as a booklet can be further improved.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a post-processing apparatus of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a state explanatory diagram illustrating a state in which a sheet bundle is folded halfway in the processing apparatus thereafter.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining an example of the sheet bundle cutting process;
FIGS. 4A and 4B are diagrams illustrating a state after binding of a conventional sheet bundle, where FIG. 4A is an explanatory diagram illustrating a state after binding when the number of sheets is relatively small, and FIG. .
[Explanation of symbols]
30 Saddle Stitch Staple 45 Center Folding Unit 50 Cutting Unit P Sheet Bundle k Cutting Position

Claims (2)

In the post-processing apparatus of an image forming apparatus that stacks sheets discharged from the image forming apparatus, binds the intermediate position of the stacked sheet bundle, and folds and binds at the intermediate position, the side on which the bound sheet bundle is opened Rutotomoni comprising a cutting means for aligning cut edges, the sensor for detecting passage of the sheet bundle folded provided, the sheet bundle based on it when it detects the passage of the sheet bundle at the sensor of the number of sheets Accordingly, the post-processing apparatus of the image forming apparatus is configured to adjust a cutting position for conveying the sheet by a predetermined distance and trimming the edges of the sheet bundle by the cutting unit according to the number of sheets of the sheet bundle.   The post-processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the cutting unit is operated only when the number of sheets is equal to or greater than a certain number of sheets.

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